In the Name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Mercy-Giving

 

All praise is due to Allah. Peace and blessings be upon His Messenger Muhammad.

 

As a ruling and a law prescribed by the Shari`ah, a Muslim may not raise objection to polygamy or any other Shari`ah ruling or law. Submission to Allah’s laws, whether one understands the wisdom behind them or not, is an essential part of being a Muslim.

It is noteworthy that polygamy is an exception not a rule. A polygamous husband is required to be just and give each wife her rights in a fair way, which is difficult for many men; otherwise, he has to face the prophetic warning “Whoever has two wives and is inclined to favor one of them over the other will come on the Day of Resurrection with half of his body leaning.” (Abu Dawud and Ay-Tirmidhi)

Polygamy has been prescribed to achieve great purposes and solve many social problems:

 

1) It is the alternative of adultery that has spread in other communities that disallow polygamy as men there look for pleasure outside marriage.

 

2) It helps decrease the number of unmarried women in the society with all the problems this increasing number causes.

 

3) It is the solution of the situation when a man comes to hate his first wife but does not want to divorce her and break the family.

 

These are just few manifestations of the wisdom behind polygamy. So, a Muslim woman should not be so selfish and should consider the needs of the ummah as well. Nowadays wars have broken out in a number of Muslim countries leaving many women without husbands or guardians. Any Muslim woman can be in the same situation. Undoubtedly polygamy is one of the solutions for such a disaster.

At a personal level, a Muslim woman, after being fully pleased with this divine law, may refuse to be in a polygamous relationship. She can even record her refusal in her marriage contract, because she does not have to accept this situation.

 

Jealousy is an emotion and feeling that only needs to be channeled in the proper way. It is a test for women to curb this emotion as it is a test for all Muslims to curb their desires and emotions and channel them in a way that pleases Allah the Almighty.

 

Almighty Allah knows best.